Today Last Year
by merryfortune
Summary: On certain days of the year, the threads of fate are visible. Once, in their younger and more vulnerable years, this was a day to dread because the red string, of love and romance, had always been a tangle and mess with a distinct end without a second person. Today, like last year, was different. The thread was taut and long; no doubt connected to another person.


**Today Last year**

As a child, there was one day a year which terrified him like none other and that is the day when the red string of fate can be seen by him and only him. And he did not like what only he could see for he had no words to truly express the horror of that broken, tangled red string tied to his pinkie finger.

But, that was merely as a child. Not too many years later, much more of the worst the world had to offer would rectify what he once thought was true, speechless horror.

It was an ungodly hour of the night, encroaching midnight, when Shun was dragged into Reiji's office. However, it would seem that the young CEO did not follow the same linear pattern of time as anyone else.

Reiji smiled coldly to himself as he saw Shun enter the room. He could see them both reflected in the glass of the window but he knew that Shun could not see him. Reiji got up and Shun folded his arms tightly across his chest. Reiji perched himself on his desk. His cold smile long evaporated. His neutral gaze met Shun's fiery glare.

'What do you want, Akaba?' Shun growled.

Reiji huffed. 'I thought we were past such formalities now, Shun.' He waved his hand flippantly through the air.

There was a split second when something about his gesture caught Shun's eye as it travelled off far beyond where Reiji's hands were. Where his fingers were. Both acknowledged that this happened but for now, would ignore it.

'Friends don't force friends to visit right before midnight.' Shun growled.

'How about you come a little closer, so we don't have to shout.' Reiji suggested.

Shun refused to budge so Reiji decided to be the bigger person. He drew closer to Shun.

'Do you know what today is?'

'A Wednesday? Not for long obviously, there's twenty minutes before midnight in which, it will soon become Thursday.' Shun replied.

'But do you know what today marks?'

'No?' Shun lied.

'I'm hurt.' Reiji feigned offence.

Shun rolled his eyes. 'Just spit it out, Reiji. Some of us need this thing called sleep.'

'I apologise for not contacting you sooner. Today's been the day from hell for me. Mistake after mistake. But tomorrow is a new day but this opportunity only come once a year. That's why it's called an anniversary.'

'What are you getting at, Reiji?' Shun asked as he raised a suspicious eyebrow.

'Today is an important day for the both of us, I thought you would remember.' Reiji replied; his voice a touch airy.

'And why is that?' Shun growled.

'Why, it was today last year that we first met.' Reiji replied.

'And what a delightful day that was. I tried to take you hostage.' Shun rolled his eyes. 'Why do you even care? I sure as hell don't.'

'You want to play that game, do you?' Reiji asked. He sounded as sly as a fox and as playful as the devil.

Shun drew a breath. He knew better than anyone that Reiji could detect deceit and deduce accurately for mere scraps of information and hints. Perhaps he did not want to play this game but Shun had invited it upon himself. Therefore, he shall suffer through it.

'Are you trying to tell me that my deductions are wrong?' Reiji asked. 'You're as transparent as this window, Shun. I know you can see it.' Reiji lifted his hand and stuck out his pinkie finger. 'I know that you can feel it.'

A thin red thread was tied to Reiji's pinkie. It meandered tightly through the air and dipped half way between he and Shun. The other half appeared to tie back to Shun as it lifted once more beneath his sleeve where he was trying to keep his hands concealed by keeping his arms folded.

'I refuse to believe it.' Shun said and he let his guard come down.

His arms slipped by his side. He didn't like how unprotected this was. He didn't like that by moving his arms, the thread changed. Now, it was a clear path from one youth to another. Shun averted his forward gaze; refusing to meet Reiji's satisfaction.

'Thank you for not lying, Shun.' Reiji replied.

He gathered up the thread before him and he saw Shun's hand move half with it. Tension appeared along it as Shun tried to resist Reiji's playing with it.

'How much of today last year do you remember?' Reiji asked. 'I can recall many events, thoughts, and feelings from today last year quite crisply. At the risk of sounding like a cliché romantic, because I am not, I was almost excited to meet that day. Today's date has always been something of a day to dread, for myself.'

'Same.' Shun piped up; interrupting Reiji.

'So, it was the same for you then?' Reiji asked.

'Probably. Once a year, this stupid red string of fate would appear and it would appear as a clotted thread. As a tangle and a mess with a distinct end without a second person on it.' Shun described.

'It used to cause me such anguish but there were later other things that caught my attention that caused me even more anguish.' Reiji mused.

'When I first told Ruri about it, she cried for me. She was always really interested in all those studies. She liked to believe the old-fashioned stuff about true love.' Shun recounted.

'Do you have any other threads of fate?' Reiji asked curiously. 'Actually, let's start with enemy threads. I'm genuinely quite curious as to how many of those you have.'

'I've been fortunate enough to have broken two of them.' Shun replied.

'Yes, but how many did you have to begin with?' Reiji asked, sternly.

'Four: your father, Yuri, Dennis, and Sora.' Shun replied.

'Only four?' Reiji replied, acting nonplussed. Though, it ought to be noted that having even one or two enemy strings of fate was an anomaly. But, Reiji liked to tease Shun.

'I'm not as hateful as a person as you would prefer to think, Reiji.' Shun retorted, somewhere within the realm of being offended.

'No, I'm just certain your lying. I could have sworn it would have been a perfect ploy of fate for you to have had an unrequited enemy thread connecting us as well.' Reiji replied.

'Well, I'm not lying.' Shun insisted. 'Okay, now you. How many enemy threads do you have?'

'Just the one. I haven't been as fortunate to have broken it yet.'

'…Your father?' Shun asked in a quiet voice.

Reiji nodded.

A moment of mourning passed.

'Okay, but what about less unfriendly fates?' Reiji asked, deciding the silence was now unbearable.

'A family thread connecting me to Ruri and platonic threads to Yuto and Crow.' Shun said as his hands balled into fists.

He was just glad a new family thread hadn't manifested connecting him to Yuzu. He really didn't want that sort of drama on his mind nowadays because he couldn't see her in the place of Ruri; in the place of family or as a sister. She was just a friend. The same logic towards, Yuya. Nothing wrong with him other than that he's not Yuto. He can't fill that gap in Shun's heart; the gap that Yuto left.

'I also have a family thread that connects me to Reira. I'm glad it didn't disappear with Reira's reincarnation.' Reiji replied.

'Do you think you'd be tied to Yuzu that way too? Since she became…' Shun was unable to finish his sentence. His throat dried up as he attempted to it.

'I'm not sure.' Reiji replied. 'I suppose I shall find out soon enough. I didn't have ones connecting me to her or Serena last year but that might have changed with all the dimensional shifts and paradoxes the final battle with Zarc caused.'

'Do you want one?' Shun asked.

'Perhaps. I'm not too sure what I want these days.' Reiji replied. 'A happy life for Reira, I suppose. Financial success for the Leo Corporation. Eventual retirement.'

'But what do you want from me?' Shun asked, sharply. He stepped forward and his resolve steeled. His eyes flashed. 'Why else summon me here if you had already confirmed that we're connected by a red string of…?'

'Good question.' Reiji nodded. 'I just wanted certainty. I wanted to talk. I've achieved both so I am satisfied for now.'

'No, not like that. Don't dodge the question; I know you know what I meant when I asked that. What do you want from me? Not just now, but in the future.' Shun reiterated.

Reiji's hands twitched. Now he was the one unable to meet an unerring, knowledgeable gaze.

'I don't know.' he admitted. 'I've never had a soul mate before.'

Shun's face reddened.

'I recall last year that when I woke up that morning and saw my thread untangled, I was awash with relief. A little part of me was less broken than before because who had ever heard of having a soul mate from another world? I was in a good mood all day. Even when you threatened to take me hostage and brought up my father. I couldn't have cared less that this criminal before me was my soul mate because he was my soul mate. A normal part of a normal life even if everything surrounding our circumstances couldn't have been more abnormal.'

'I know that feeling.' Shun confessed. 'When I woke up today last year, I kind of felt the same thing. All those times Ruri had cried for me because she thought I didn't have a soul mate came back to me. If anything, it helped me decide that today would be the day I would get her back so I could hug her and tell her the great news. I was expecting to meet some random Standard – Pendulum – civilian by accident and realise we were connected. I was expecting some random civilian who I would've gotten along with like a house on fire had the Academia Invasion never happened. Instead, I got you.'

'Am I better or worse?' Reiji asked, pointedly. His eyes narrowing as he enjoyed having put Shun in a corner with such a question.

'Haven't decided yet.' Shun replied with half a chuckle; a wry look in his eye. 'Because, at the time, when I saw that we were connected, I was absolutely revolted. Stunned too, at the time, a white string of hatred would have suited us better.'

'And that's completely understandable.'

'Because in that moment, I realised I truly was a plaything of fate. I realised that there most certainly is some kind of deity in the sky who truly gets his jollies by being the biggest sadist. Why else could everything have happened that way with such dramatic irony? But now…'

'But now?' Reiji echoed.

'But now, I'm thinking, having you as a soul mate wouldn't be a bad thing because he's not his father.' Shun finished.

'I'm flattered.' Reiji replied.

He reached out for Shun's hand. Midnight was mere seconds away but he just wanted to try to catch it before it disappears. Shun let Reiji take his hand; let their fingers interlock. The thread twisted around itself and dangled in the space between their forearms.

Then it disappeared. From sight, from touch. Midnight had come in quietly.

'So, what now?' Shun asked.

'I don't know.' Reiji replied. 'What do you want, Shun?'

'I don't know either, I've never had a soul mate.' Shun replied with something of a joke.

'Come now, ignoring everything, surely there is something you want from me?'

'You haven't said what you want from me, so why should I tell you what I want from you?' Shun asked and he let his fingers slip from Reiji's.

'I don't know what I want because I have reason to believe you would satisfy all my criteria I could come up with if given enough time, but I've had a year to think about it and I still can't answer you properly. I suppose that I want someone headstrong, argumentative, loyal, good with children, and would understand what kind of screwed-up family I've come from.' Reiji said.

'Then maybe that's why I can't think of a thing either, maybe it's because I can already see your good qualities and know that's what I would want from a partner.' Shun replied. 'Maybe I'd want someone who can make the hard choices, has a hidden soft side, is intelligent, is just and noble.'

Shun drew in closer this time. He smirked. 'Is that why you said if I participate in the Duel Tournament, and satisfied your conditions, I could have my way with you.' He whispered in Reiji's ear.

Reiji flushed. 'I thought you'd appreciate the bait. And I hadn't meant it like that.'

'Then how did you mean it?' Shun asked.

'I thought you would know that would mean I would comply with all your conditions in your little plan to get Ruri back. Anyways, I'm still quite confident that I would best you in a Duel.'

'Why don't we test that then?' Shun asked.

'If you insist.'

'And, if I win, I still get my year-old prize.'

'I am a man of my word, however I ought to get something in exchange.'

'Then it'll go both ways then.'

'Acceptable.'

Shun stepped back and Reiji pushed his glasses up. Suddenly, despite it being ten minutes into Thursday, neither were tired. Shun smirked and figured he would he would start his strategy now. He stepped back into Reiji's personal space and pecked his lips. Just a quick, chaste kiss but it left Reiji flustered nonetheless.

'All is fair in love and duels.' Shun quipped as he stepped back.

Reiji furrowed his brows. 'Well, that is one way to ensure that I go all out.'

'I'd want nothing less than your best.'

Shun licked his lips. If all their kisses were like that, he could very much be fine with having Akaba Reiji as a soul mate. He was looking forward to next year. He wanted to know how their relationship could progress once more since they had already come a very long way since yesterday last year.

:

 **AN: More soul mate to come probably because the relationships in Arc V are so delicious to play with.**

 **But here's an alternative, soul mate au that I won't elaborate/continue on in this point in time. Identifying marks rather than strings of fate: Reiji and Shun would have a geometric heart with a distinct diamond or jewel-like motif on their wrists. Because Reiji is associated with diamonds and Shun is from** _ **Heart**_ **land.**

 **Additionally, Compromiseshipping (Shun/Reiji/Serena) AU to go with above idea. Same but with the jewel from Serena's bracelet incorporated as well.**

 **Or maybe the dimensions could have mismatching systems. Standard: Red String of Fate, XYZ: hearts don't start beating til they meet the one(s) (idk how polyam would work but it could), Synchro: timers, and Fusion could have matching sentences. That'd make inter-dimension soul mates really fun.**


End file.
